Professional baseball player to retire over nuclear radiation from Fukushima!

The guy has balls!

Giants pitcher Bannister to retire

Yomiuri right-hander Brian Bannister has voluntarily left the Giants organization, citing fears over the nuclear crisis facing the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the March 11 earthquake in eastern Japan.

According to team representative Hidetoshi Kiyotake, Bannister, 30, has returned to the United States and has said he has no plans to play baseball again, whether it be in the U.S. or Japan.

The guy is probably giving up several millions of $ every year... not many people would have done that.

Bannister pitched a few years in the bigs, and then a few more in Japan. I highly doubt money is an issue for him. And if he does feel the radiation is a threat, I'm sure choosing to leave money on the table is no choice at all.

What good is money if you are dead or dying?

Originally posted by captaintyinknots
What good is money if you are dead or dying?

Good point!

Someone claimed the nuclear plant workers who are getting exposed to radiation are getting paid the equivalent of about $5000 US per day. That's over a million dollars a year, if they last that long. If true, that's generous compared to Chernobyl where the exposed workers only got a bonus of about $100.00

If money is your only concern, they could probably use some extra help. But health is more important for some.

I can understand not wanting to play in Japan anymore. However, I can't understand refusing to play in the US anymore.

Leaving Japan makes sense to me, but there's really nowhere in the world to get away from the fallout completely. And the US probably isn't much worse than anywhere else. Parts of Europe still have contamination problems from Chernobyl. So why won't he play in the US?

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

I can understand not wanting to play in Japan anymore. However, I can't understand refusing to play in the US anymore.

He's probably under a long term contract in Japan and would most likely be sued if he signed for a US team. Sometimes it's better to take the money and run

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by captaintyinknots
What good is money if you are dead or dying?

Good point!

Someone claimed the nuclear plant workers who are getting exposed to radiation are getting paid the equivalent of about $5000 US per day. That's over a million dollars a year, if they last that long. If true, that's generous compared to Chernobyl where the exposed workers only got a bonus of about $100.00

If money is your only concern, they could probably use some extra help. But health is more important for some.

I can understand not wanting to play in Japan anymore. However, I can't understand refusing to play in the US anymore.

Leaving Japan makes sense to me, but there's really nowhere in the world to get away from the fallout completely. And the US probably isn't much worse than anywhere else. Parts of Europe still have contamination problems from Chernobyl. So why won't he play in the US?

The thing is, the guy was a career 37-50 pitcher with an era above 5. I highly doubt he would be on the top of the list of available players in the bigs. There is a reason he wet to Japan to play.

If a team wanted him they could easily buy him out of his Japanese contract, but for a pitcher that has proven he doesnt cut it in the bigs, there'd be no reason.